From Streets to Spirit: A Reflective Study on Homebound
An academic and personal examination of Neeraj Ghaywan’s powerful cinematic narrative
On first learning about Homebound, our class was presented with a worksheet focusing on four aspects that were expected to guide our viewing: Context and Background, Social Themes, Character Arcs, and Cinematic Language. Before the screening, we were encouraged to observe social relations, note narrative structure, track the emotional and visual rhythms of the film, and respond critically to the real-world issues it depicts. With these guideposts in mind, I watched Homebound not merely as a story unfolding on screen, but as a layered, socially conscious text that asks us to rethink mobility, friendship, caste, faith, and human dignity.
Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound is a Hindi-language drama that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 and is India’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Oscars. The film, produced by Dharma Productions and executive-produced by Martin Scorsese, is based on a 2020 New York Times article by Basharat Peer, which was rooted in a tragic real-life incident during the COVID-19 lockdown.
In the film’s narrative, we follow Chandan Kumar (played by Vishal Jethwa) and Mohammed Shoaib Ali (Ishaan Khatter), two childhood friends from a small North Indian village who share a common dream — to become police officers, believing this will grant them dignity and respect in a society riddled with caste and religious prejudice. Their lives are, however, upended by socio-economic pressures and the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, which sets them on a difficult journey back home.
This blog reflects on the themes, character portrayal, narrative structure, symbolic elements, and social critique of Homebound, integrating personal responses with academic insight.
1. Context and Real-World Foundations
Before the screening, the worksheet emphasized understanding the historical and social conditions that shape Homebound — specifically, how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed deep fractures in Indian society, particularly for migrant workers. The film is rooted in an essay by Basharat Peer titled “A Friendship, a Pandemic & a Death Beside the Highway” which documented the plight of two migrant laborers caught in lockdown, one of whom died. Ghaywan’s adaptation fictionalizes this account and expands it into a broader meditation on caste, religion, and systemic inequality.
This grounding in real events gives Homebound not just narrative weight, but sociological significance. It invites audiences to move beyond passive consumption of news and connect emotionally with individuals whose lives are routinely reduced to statistics. Unlike many fictional films that distance the viewer from reality, Homebound insists that we see, feel, and reflect on the structural forces that shape lives.
2. Narrative Arc: Journey as Story and Metaphor
At its core, Homebound uses journey as both plot device and metaphor. The friends’ pursuit of police jobs represents not just economic aspiration, but their attempt to claim belonging and social legitimacy. This resonates deeply in the Indian context, where jobs in law enforcement are among the few avenues that can offer dignity, security, and social status to marginalized youth.
However, the narrative shifts dramatically with the pandemic. What begins as a personal quest for dignity becomes a collective struggle for survival. The nationwide lockdown, which forced millions of migrant workers to walk hundreds of kilometers home, becomes the film’s central crucible — a symbolic and literal rupture that forces characters to confront the fragility of their dreams in the face of systemic neglect.
The film’s narrative structure avoids melodrama and instead favors gradual escalation, allowing the emotional stakes to anchor organically in the characters’ lived experience. Rather than dramatizing every moment, Homebound allows moments of quiet suffering and resilience to accumulate, giving the viewer space to feel rather than simply observe the characters’ plight.
3. Characters: Complex Souls, Not Stereotypes
Chandan: The Burden of Caste
Chandan represents the weight and divisiveness of caste in contemporary India. Born into a Dalit household, his struggles are not merely economic but deeply symbolic — he carries the burden of historical stigma that continues to define social interaction even after the legal abolition of caste hierarchy. Chandan’s trajectory in the film shows how merit alone cannot dismantle centuries of bias; even when he clears the police exam, the larger society seems reluctant to internalize his achievement as legitimate.
His interactions with family and friends reveal the double consciousness that marginalized individuals often endure: within the household, he is valued, but outside, he is perpetually reminded of his caste identity. These scenes are among the most poignant in the film because they depict how caste continues to frame identity, often invisibly, in everyday life.
Shoaib: Faith, Belonging, and Invisible Borders
Shoaib’s identity as a Muslim man adds another layer of complexity to the narrative. The film does not resort to overt confrontation; instead, it depicts everyday Islamophobia — the workplace where colleagues refuse to drink from the same water bottle he filled, offhand remarks during a cricket match, small humiliations that accumulate into existential weariness. These moments, subtle yet piercing, reflect a lived reality for many minority communities.
Rather than painting Shoaib as a symbol, the film humanizes him through his affection for family, his loyalty to Chandan, and his personal aspirations. His character arc explores how faith and belonging become sites of negotiation in a society that treats difference as suspicion.
4. Friendship as Political and Emotional Scaffold
At its emotional core, Homebound is a friendship story. The bond between Chandan and Shoaib becomes the film’s most powerful vehicle for exploring themes of solidarity in the face of divisive social forces. Their shared experiences — aspirations, disappointments, humiliations — draw them closer even as their societal identities are shaped by external forces of caste and religion.
The film challenges us to see friendship not as mere companionship, but as resistance: a mutual affirmation of dignity in a world that constantly devalues certain lives. In this sense, Homebound extends the genre of social realism into the realm of emotional truth.
5. Symbolism and Cinematic Style
Ghaywan’s cinematic style employs visual metaphors with great subtlety. Water, moving trains, flocks of birds, and long stretches of road repeatedly return as motifs through the narrative — each symbolizing motion, displacement, and the impermanence of home. The vast landscapes through which the protagonists travel evoke both isolation and collective humanity.
6. Themes: Belonging, Inequality, and Social Memory
Belonging and Identity
Caste and Communal Inequality
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The pandemic — as a rupture in national consciousness — becomes a structural device in the film. The characters’ journey reflects a broader story of millions who were displaced, unseen, and uncounted. In illuminating this collective experience, Homebound participates in shaping social memory, reminding us of what was lost and whom the nation left behind.
7. Personal Reflection: Watching Beyond the Screen
Watching Homebound with the worksheet in mind transformed it from a film into a living text. Rather than simply watching events unfold, I found myself tracking social structures, power relations, and narrative choices that the director made to foreground lived experience over melodrama.
One scene that stayed with me long after the screening was a quiet moment where Shoaib’s Muslim identity is subtly questioned by a coworker during a casual break. No loud confrontation, no dramatic speech — just a glance exchanged, a micro-insult that reveals how deep social prejudice can be. This subtle storytelling taught me that cinema’s power often lies not in spectacle, but in truthful details.
8. Contribution to Contemporary Cinema
Homebound stands as a significant work in contemporary Indian cinema because it foregrounds marginalized voices without reducing them to symbols or monologues. The film merges social realism with emotional clarity, striking a rare balance that resonates both in India and globally.
The recognition it has received — Cannes standing ovation, Oscar shortlist consideration — testifies not only to cinematic quality but also to the universal human concerns it addresses: belonging, dignity, inequality, and friendship amid adversity.
Conclusion: Cinema as Witness and Reflection
In conclusion, Homebound is more than a film — it is a mirror held up to society, challenging viewers to confront uncomfortable truths about inequality, identity, and the lingering aftermath of the pandemic. Guided by the pre-screening worksheet, we approached the film with analytical lenses and left with empathetic hearts.
The journey of Chandan and Shoaib reflects not just individual aspiration, but a collective narrative of millions whose stories remain untold on mainstream screens. Through its restrained yet powerful storytelling, Homebound invites us to witness, reflect, and — most importantly — remember.
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